Angry Independent on Mirror On America (a 30 something man from the Midwest and one of my absolute favorite blogs on the political scene and one that I continue to feel politically challenged by...) has a wonderful post today called Whither Third Party? outlining the recent history of independent presidential candidates.
Glad to see this opening for dialogue! Angry Independent concludes the article with: "One thing is clear, however, independents are a rising force in US politics and both major parties would be wise to appeal to them or they risk becoming an afterthought."
The Hankster couldn't agree more! BUT, are the parties "wise"?
This is a moment (thanks to Amercian voters themselves) where the driving force isn't so much ideology or specific positions on particular social issues, but rather a structural issue: partisanship itself. This presents a not uninteresting problem for the parties because in order to co-opt the issue that regular people are increasingly interested in, they have to wrangle with an electorate that is turned off by their very "Modus Operandi"... People just don't like the exclusive, dismissive, mercernary conduct of political parties, including the quickly failed effort of the Reform Party coming out of the Perot movement.
A big reason the Reform Party failed is that it refused to include people of color. To put it another way, the Reform Party decided to die rather than turn black. (And BTW, is this a new issue in the continuing uncompleted American Revolution?)
Will we see the rise of a "third" party along with the rise of voters choosing the status of "independent"? Who knows?
But I don't think we can count on a hot shot. Mayor Bloomberg, with all due respect to his personal persuasions, was able to "convert" to independent within the historical context in NYC of a re-alignment of traditional Democratic party forces: a Black and independent alliance that was speaking out for nonpartisanship and progress for all people.
In the words of Mother Jones, "Don't mourn, organize!" In the words of Jackie Salit "Even a billionaire has to prove himself [sic] to independents... For the short term independents have to put pressure on would-be independent presidential candidates." [See Jackie Salit's paper on independentvoting.org called The Bloomberg Story.]
And might I add, independents have to be organized to have a voice. And that's a philosophical point that goes beyond partisanship, parties and our way of thinking about these issues.
Nancy
2 comments:
Glad to see you enjoyed my post. I think you make goods points on several fronts. The opening now for a third party isn't ideological, but systemic. Couldn't agree more. Americans are ready for a candidate that transcends the party structure and is truly willing to operate outside of the politics as usual. Unfortunately, I think we're still to cynical to accept that this is a possibility.
Yes! We are indeed cynical, and with good reason. The game is rigged, the cards are stacked, the landscape is tilted... And that's why we need to urge Americans to not only accept some new possibilities, we need to create those possibilities -- even while we contend with the current grim dead reality.
After all -- when Galileo was put under house arrest for showing the Church that the earth was not the center of the universe, it was ordinary people who insisted on looking through the telescope!
Thanks, Political Realm!
Nancy
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